Obama HHS Official to Join Migration Policy Institute

Mark Greenberg, the former deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF), will join the Migration Policy Institute in July, where he will focus on intersections between immigration issues and social services and social welfare policy.

Greenberg joined HHS in 2009. In 2013, he became acting assistant secretary of ACF, which includes the Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Office of Head Start, and from 2013-2015, he was acting commissioner for the Administration on Children, Youth and Families.

Prior to joining HHS, Greenberg directed the Georgetown University Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy. Earlier, he was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and executive director of its Task Force on Poverty. From 1988 through 2009, he was at the Center for Law and Social Policy, where he served as senior staff attorney, director of policy, and senior fellow.

At MPI, Greenberg will lead a project examining issues that could affect the provision of human services by state and local agencies to immigrants and their U.S.-born children amid heightened immigration enforcement.

“Mark’s expertise extends from social services and early childhood education to broader issues of inequality in our society — all issues that are central to the nation’s immigration debate. He will be a great addition to MPI,” said MPI President Michael Fix.

In an interview with Spotlight in February, Greenberg took note of his experience with refugee issues while at HHS.

“At ACF, we had responsibilities around the federal refugee resettlement program, and I was able to visit a number of refugee service providers and talk with staff and refugees,” he said. “It’s a powerful experience to listen to refugees, learn about what they went through and what it means to them to be in America. We sought to encourage stronger links between refugee resettlement and other human services programs, and I think there’s much more than can and should be done to strengthen services and supports for arriving refugees and their families.”